Kelly Rowland Makes Nice With Beyoncé On New Song ‘You Changed’

It seems all Kelly Rowland had to do was ask to get the ladies of Destiny’s Child on her new solo album, Talk A Good Game (out June 18 on Universal Republic).

Rowland’s “You Changed,” which leaked online earlier today (May 28), starts with the straightforward query, “Ladies, y’all want to do it again?,” and features Michelle Williams and Beyoncé in strictly back-up singer roles. Though her fellow Destiny’s ladies are on the track, Rowland told Radio.com that fans shouldn’t consider her latest song a new one from the girl group.

Though Bey and Williams mostly show off their stellar harmonizing skills on the track, Rowland does manage to throw them the spotlight for a second. She gives Williams a 7-second vocal breakdown, while Beyoncé manages to get a full verse. But there’s none of the usual Queen B vocal acrobatics included on this one, it’s Kelly who gets to run the show.

“It’s a great record and our voices sound so great on this record, I am so excited for people to hear it,” Rowland told Radio.com months before the song leaked. Listen below.

Fans also shouldn’t expect “You Changed” to be anywhere nearly as sultry as her current hit, “Kisses Down Low.”

“[‘You Changed’] is about a relationship that has gone awry and not in the best place,” Rowland explained. “The way the record is written is genius. I tip my hat to [songwriter] Courtney Harrell. The way she is witty and sarcastic, lyrically, just made me so excited to sing it.”

The song doesn’t stray too far from the familiar pop hooks that made Destiny’s so popular, but Rowland does take a softer approach on the mid-tempo kiss-off. Letting her ex know in a calming voice, “If love was a game/You just lost.”

Though Rowland didn’t write the song herself, that doesn’t mean she can’t relate to its message.

“I remember being in a situation like that,” she said. “You have to tell somebody, ‘I can say I’m done with you in so many ways but I’m gonna just gonna tell you, I’m sick of this mess it’s over.'”

Rowland’s last song to leak, “Dirty Laundry,” was a tough-talking ballad that addressed an abusive relationship and the toils of playing second fiddle to Beyoncé. On it she sings, “While my sister was on stage, killing it like a mother****er/I was enraged, feeling it like a mother****er.”

She later explains, “He pulled me out, he said, ‘Don’t nobody love you but me. Not your mama, not your daddy and especially not Bey’/He turned me against my sister/I missed ya.”

Earlier this year, Destiny’s Child reunited for Love Songs, a compilation of some of the trio’s most romantic melodies recorded between 1997 and 2004. The album also included the Pharrell Williams-produced “Nuclear,” which was the group’s first original song since their last record, 2004’s Destiny Fulfilled.

Shannon Carlin

Shannon Carlin
Shannon is an associate music producer for Radio.com. She previously worked as the music editor for Beyond Race Magazine, before earning a master's degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. While interning at NPR she wrote...